Today the fine detail will be outlined to Conwy and Denbighshire NHS Trust, which first put forward the plans 18 months ago.

The hospital still needs final approval for details of the scheme from the Assembly.

Chief executive Gren Kershaw said: "All the ceiling voids have to be removed and while we are doing this work we will take the opportunity to completely upgrade the hospital."

Four new wards will be built, and patients transferred into them, while the revamp takes place.

The &#xA3;61m scheme is the most expensive of the five options considered. The possibility of building a complete new hospital on a green field site was also looked at but was dismissed as not being economically viable.

Mr Kershaw said it would leave the present hospital building unusable.

"We had hoped to start work on the scheme later this year but it is likely to slip into the early part of next year. The work will take up to eight years to complete," added Mr Kershaw

Non-executive director Professor David Jones said it was an exciting scheme.

"We are effectively taking the hospital back to its frame and starting again," he said.

A similar expensive scheme is required at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil, which, like Glan Clwyd, was built in the late 1970s.

* The hospital's League of Friends committee has presented &#xA3;220,000 worth of equipment, thanks to a succcessful 12 months of fund-raising.

Chairman Menna Owen emphasised the work carried out, not only in fund raising but also in giving a friendly ear to patients at the hospital.

During the group's annual meeting Mr Kershaw announced the appoint-ment of a fund raiser to ensure that the work of all the many voluntary bodies associated with the hospital were properly coordinated and to help smaller groups.